Wednesday, September 16, 2015

And That's All She Wrote...

First off, no, I am not done blogging (you can cancel your celebratory parades). This is just (unfortunately), my last "I went to this Staten Island Yankees game yesterday"-post for this year.

It was game two of the New York-Penn League League Championship Series. The SI Yankees came home after a loss to the Blackbears (Pirates affiliate) in West Virginia and they were looking to have home field advantage aid them in their quest for their seventh title.

Before the game I just met up with a few Yankee guys to say thanks for all of the wonderful memories (you know, just in case). And I got a few autographs from the Blackbears.

This Ke'Bryan Hayes was yet another card sent to me by P-Town Tom (thanks a bunch Tom, your USA sets helped me a ton this year!). Ke'Bryan Hayes was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first round of this year's draft and was promoted to West Virginia later in the year. He is a third baseman/outfielder who projects to be a solid overall hitter and average defender at third.
He is the son of former major leaguer Charlie Hayes and Ke'Bryan was born in 1997. Feel old yet?

This other autograph of David Andriese wasn't even one I got. Near the Blackbears dugout there were a few autograph collectors and one of them was a guy I semi-always meet in Staten Island. They were attempting to do the whole Blackbears set (I'm not sure if they were successful), and they gave me their spare Andriese card which was already signed (probably when they got theirs signed). A very kind gesture :). Add in the fact that this fellow collector has given me vouchers to go see games at SI and I owe him big time come 2016.

Now the SI Yankees had a chance to even the series yesterday with a win. Judging from the way I started this post you all can probably guess what happened.

The Yankees' first rounder James Kaprielian took the hill for the Baby Bombers. He was downright dominant as he threw 6.1 innings of scoreless ball where he only allowed three hits, struck out six batters while only walking two.

BOOOOOO!!!!

However the Blackbears took advantage of a rusty SI Yankees team that had been taking a three day break waiting for the Blackbears/Crosscutters series to end. Jhalan Jackson hit a solo HR that was the SI Yankees' only run. The Blackbears ended up winning 3-1 and the Staten Island Yankees season came to a close. It sucks but congrats to the Blackbears on their first NYPL title.

All in all it was a very fun year. If you had told me on day one that the SI Yanks would've gotten to the NYPL Championship Series I would've taken that in a heartbeat. Obviously losing it all at the very end is disappointing, but it sure was one fun and wild ride. Apparently this marks the first time the SI Yankees were ever defeated in the Championship Series. I'll do a followup post where I do a season in review type of thing for the SI Yankees (this year I went to enough games that I think I can say that I know what I'm talking about).

Fittingly enough the final autograph I obtained at the stadium was this gigantic Kyle Holder autograph. For size comparisons I put a normal Holder card near the bottom right. It was already pre-signed and available in the gift shop. I decided why not? He's still a first round Yankee. BTW, I decided to give the oversized Thairo Estrada card I picked up in the past to him, because why not?

Oh and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the very last giveaway. These yellow foam fingers, sponsored by Richmond County Savings Bank (which is the very bank the SI Yankees ballpark is named after). I like foam fingers but distributing yellow foam fingers when the opposing team is a Pirates affiliate who have yellow colors in their jerseys is a bit... misguided.
Although these were most likely just leftover foam fingers from a previous promotion where the team gave these out because I distinctly remember the SI Yankees giving these out earlier in the season.

And thus ends the 2015 Staten Island Yankees season. So many autographs, so many awkward handshakes/fistbumps/conversations and so many memories. It'll be hard for future seasons to top this (especially after I get a job again, ack!).